Living with anxiety

[calicat]

Hi it’s my first post here. I’ve always had anxiety from what I can remember and I’ve always just dealt with it. I am 28 now and in my 2nd year teaching and my anxiety is seeming less and less manageable. I decided to look into medication and my doctor prescribed lexapro 10 mg once a day. By the 4th day I was so dizzy, nauseous and over anxious my doctor said stop taking it. It’s been 6 days and I was feeling better until today. Dizzy and nauseous and over anxious again. Could this be leftover effects or just my own head? Of course thinking about all of this gives me more anxiety. Please respond with any advice or info you have. Thanks

[Agora1]

Hi calicat, being on Lexapro myself I would think it was first your brain getting use to the chemical and then when you stopped, it was your brain readjusting to not having it.

For myself, I have found Lexapro to be a great drug for anxiety issues. I've been on it for close to 5 years. Just recently had the dose increased and for a week or so experienced a little extra anxiousness but I knew it was coming from the brain readjusting to the increase.

Because your anxiety has been less and less manageable, it's sometimes had to decipher

what's causing what, the medication or the anxiety over the medication. Follow your doctor's instructions, it may not be the right drug for you. Good Luck with the next med he may put you on. It's all about finding the right med and the right dose. Hang in there.

[calicat in reply to Agora1]

Thank you so much for your response. I have a good support system in my boyfriend and family but not a lot of people to help me really understand this process as they haven’t been on any meds and can’t give me that kind of advice. Do you remember having any major side effects when you started? I could hardly function, although I know your body has to get used to it it scared me

[Agora1 in reply to calicat]

It was so long ago that I was put on it so I'm sorry I don't remember. I started on 10mg for a couple weeks 5 years ago then upped to 15mg where I stayed on that until a couple months ago and was upped to 20mg (which is the max). Because that was more recent, I remember having a few mild difficult days until my body adjusted to the increase. Each medication reacts differently with every one so it's hard to say what was causing the symptoms. Since SSRIs take anywhere from 4-6 weeks to reach full efficacy I would tend to say it was the medication causing those symptoms (which is normal) See how your doctor wants to address your anxiety now. There's many meds out there that may work more gently for you. Good Luck calicat

[tjs2112]

Unfortunately anxiety management requires a LOT of patience. Patience in getting meds to work, patience in learning your symptoms, patience in putting up with symptoms, etc.

I had a lot of bad experiences with prozac. It actually caused more symptoms than it cured. I'm currently not taking any medication, but I'm feeling really good. I went the therapy route, and that worked for me. It took me awhile to learn about my symptoms, and to break the worry cycle.

Everyone's different, but it'll take you some time to find out what works for you. It sucks a bit to go through it, but just know that the symptoms can't actually hurt you. If you haven't, the next time you get a rush of anxiety, try sitting in it and feeling it out. Try to map the sensations, and learn about it. Approaching my symptoms with curiosity, and learning them, rather than fearing and fighting them, helped my brain realize that it didn't need to worry once the symptoms hit. The curiosity felt better than worrying, so my brain replaced the automatic worrying with curiosity.

Again, everyone's different, but if you've been cleared of any underlying cause for these symptoms, you know it's anxiety, and you know it can't hurt you.

[calicat in reply to tjs2112]

Thanks so much for your response. That really helped. I definitely panic when the worry and anxiety comes and do need to practice “sitting in it” like you said. I would like to try the therapy route but need to figure out the time and costs. Once the worry starts it’s like it builds and builds and I get worked up and can’t come down. I will take your words to heart

[tjs2112 in reply to calicat]

Right? You feel better for a bit, then for no reason the anxiety tingles come back. You get frustrated, as if somehow you did something wrong, or you’re losing progress, or you’re broken. None of that is true. It took awhile for us to wire our brains to be anxious, so it may take some time for them to rewire.

Be kind to yourself when it happens. Oddly enough, for those of us with anxious minds, it’s hard for us to show ourselves love. Be patient when the tingles start, stay calm, try to pull yourself INTO the moment and feel it out. Repeat to yourself that your brain is actually trying to protect you from a threat that isn’t there, so we just need to show it that there’s nothing to fear. It might not happens as quickly as we like, but we can overcome it and help show our brain that it’s okay to relax.

[travis1982]

Its a great product, give it a few weeks for your body to get use to it. Everything you are feeling is normal

[Sprinkle1]

Hello, I have been suffering from severe anxiety, I have a psychiatrist, he has me on Gabapentin for anxiety I take 300 mg 7 am, noon, 5 pm and 600 mg at bedtime 10/11 pm. It is a non addictive med. He also just changed my antidepressant to Viibryd, which is wonderful for me, I came out of the dep/anxiety in 2 weeks, I am doing so well, driving my car again, eating, cooking for myself, it was a very severe case, and now I am free and back to my old self. I understand med's usually take 6 to 8 weeks to settle in with the brain, perhaps you need to wait a little longer. I wish you well, talk to your Dr. you need to function as top quality. I send you love and healing energy. Sprinkle 1.......xx